


New Athens Prep

by Glaikit



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Mortal, Fluff, High School, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Build, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2018-11-17 10:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11273484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glaikit/pseuds/Glaikit
Summary: ANOTHER high school solangelo fic.  I just couldn't help myself.





	1. the first day

Will slapped Cecil’s hand away from his stack of pens. It was mid-morning on their first day of sophomore year, and his best friend was already testing his patience. He was trying to keep his attention on what the teacher was saying by carefully filling in his planner as she walked them through the syllabus, but Cecil seemed determined to throw off his color-coding system. Lou Ellen was on the other side of Cecil, trying to stifle her laughter. Will had missed her over the summer. He and Cecil were some of only a dozen non-boarding students at New Athens Prep Academy. Most of their classmates lived in the school dorms during the semesters and spent summers with their families. Lou Ellen had flown in just last night, and had been filling them in on her summer spent touring Europe between classes. The only summer highlight Will and Cecil could offer was that the 24-hour diner in town added a new milkshake flavor. 

Will didn’t let it get to him though - he knew that he was lucky to be at the school in the first place. New Athens Prep had an agreement with the surrounding school districts that they would waive the tuition fee if local students met their academic requirements. Most of the kids Will and Cecil had grown up going to school with were now attending the public high school in the next county over. Will had decided at a young age to become a doctor, and the local high school only had one AP science class compared to New Athens Prep’s offering of more than 30, in addition to some IB courses. Besides, Will idolized his older brother, Michael, and he had gone to the school before joining the Marines. Before he was killed on-duty last spring.

The bell for lunch rang and everyone began to pack their bags as their teacher reminded them that they had to read two chapters and a write a reflection for Wednesday. The three of them walked toward the student lounge, Lou Ellen detouring through the cafe to buy lunch. Will and Cecil found their usual table and sat down to eat. Will glanced up in time to see his sister, Kayla, walk through the archway. She was wearing a deer-in-headlights look similar to what Will was sure he had on his first day last year. Will had been completely overwhelmed by the differences between the small middle school they went to with 20 kids in each grade compared to this place, with its grand brick buildings and hallways lined with glass cases displaying trophies and four times as many students. Will was about to wave Kayla over when Lou Ellen nearly ran into her, then grabbed her bag strap and pulled her toward their table. 

The two girls sat down and Kayla sighed. “I got lost on my way to literally every class so far.” Lou Ellen patted her shoulder gently before opening her bag of chips. 

“Did anyone else from your grade transfer in?” Will asked. 

Kayla shrugged. “There's a boy who I went to school with - Jeremy something - but I haven't seen him yet and we weren’t really friends.” She took a bite of her sandwich and then made a muffled noise and tried to swallow quickly. “Actually, you remember Nico di Angelo? He's in my history class. Maybe they moved back or something?”

Will did remember Nico. They had all played together on Saturdays in the park in town when they were younger - Will and his siblings, Cecil, and Percy Jackson and his cousins: Bianca and Nico. Nico was Kayla’s age, talked non-stop, had been obsessed with some card game, and idolized his sister. Bianca had been nice and brave and adventurous, but Will didn't know her very well. He spent most of his time helping Cecil build things or playing pranks on Kayla.

Will remembered the day three years ago when his parents sat them down and told them Bianca had been hit by a car, that she was badly hurt and might not make it. Then, a week after that, putting on his nicest clothes too go to her funeral. They sat near the back of the church but he could see Nico sitting completely still next to his father, Percy in the row behind them sitting between his divorced parents. He saw Nico one more time after that, a Saturday in the park a couple weeks later. Nico was unusually quiet and Percy kept trying to get him to climb trees with them. Then, all of a sudden, he was shouting at Percy - Will didn't remember about what. Michael had been doing homework at a picnic table, half watching them, and ran over to calm Nico down. He called their parents from a pay phone, and ten minutes later a fancy black car picked Nico up. His dad moved them out to California a couple weeks later.

Cecil had asked Kayla something while Will was lost in his memories. “... totally different. Didn’t talk to anyone, sort of glared out the window most of the class, that sort of thing. But, I mean, after Bianca…” Kayla looked down and absently picked at the other half of her sandwich.

They all got quiet, except for Lou Ellen, who was looking around, confused. “Who’s Bianca?” 

Will sighed. “She was Nico’s sister, would’ve been … a senior this year, I think? She was hit by a car a few years ago and Nico and his dad moved away after that. It was really hard for both of them.” Lou Ellen just nodded. Will couldn’t help but remember the few months after Michael died. Even though he hadn’t been living at home anymore, his absence was palpable. Everything felt alien.

Their table fell into a tense silence, everyone thinking about Bianca and Michael and the helplessness that came with unexpected deaths. A loud whistle on the other side of the lounge snapped them out of the moment. Percy Jackson was standing up and waving toward the door. Will glanced over and saw Nico, same messy black hair and olive-toned skin Will remembered, glaring daggers at Percy, who seemed oblivious to Nico’s irritation. Nico sighed and made his way toward him anyway, sitting down between Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.

Lou Ellen used the interruption as an opportunity to steer the conversation toward a brighter subject, turning toward Kayla and asked about her teachers for the semester. Will tuned them out and studied Nico. Will always found the similarities and differences between family members interesting. Nico and Percy seemed to have almost opposite personalities, but some of their mannerisms were identical. The messy black hair too. Will wondered if Nico and his dad had moved back, or if he was staying in the dorms. Will vaguely remembered Nico and Bianca having the newest video games and getting dropped off at the park by a car that looked expensive, but apart from that Will didn’t have any idea what their dad did or if they were the type of family who could afford tuition and boarding there.

Will tried to see flashes of the excitable 10 year old Nico had been. It was tricky - at the moment he was sinking lower into his seat and rolling his eyes at something Percy said. Will wondered how much of the change was from Bianca’s death … but then supposed that something like that was so huge that you couldn’t really isolate its effects. He didn’t think that Kayla was all that different, really, but she was more cynical, quicker to cry or get angry since Michael died. Will envied her sometimes, how open she was with her emotions, but he had also seen the heartbreak in his mother’s eyes when she was comforting Kayla and couldn’t bring himself to add to his parents’ stress. So, he put on big smiles and saved his real emotions for when he was alone, in the shower or late at night. And some days it felt like he was playing the part of a character called Will, going through the motions and reciting a memorized script, and it all felt empty. But he wasn’t sure what he would be like if he didn’t put so much energy into acting normal.

Nico looked up sharply and Will realized he'd probably been staring for a while now. He smiled awkwardly and sort of waved - no use pretending he wasn't looking directly at Nico - and Nico just lifted an eyebrow in response and turned away. Will tried to suppress his blush and pick up the thread of whatever Kayla and Lou Ellen were talking about.

“Ugh and he’s that dark-and-mysterious type you like, right Will?” Lou Ellen asked, waiting for his response.

“Wha-what? Who?”

“That barista at the coffee shop right off campus - Kayla hasn’t ever been there. I was telling her their mochas are almost as tasty as their staff, which is saying something with us being in the middle of nowhere and all.”

“Oh, yeah… sure.”

Cecil chuckled and picked up his trash. “No, she was talking about our chem teacher who is eternally grumpy and about a hundred years old. And who will give us detention if we're late the first class of the semester so we should probably get going.”


	2. Group Projects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico is a grump.

One of the things Nico had come to appreciate about attending a boarding school was just how late he could push sleeping in on weekdays. His alarm was set for 15 minutes before his first class, and that gave him just enough time to brush his teeth, throw on the uniform, splash water on his face, and walk from the boys’ dorm to the main hall, where he could pick up a huge cup of coffee and claim a seat all before the teacher walked in. The downside was that it usually took a little longer than that for the coffee to take effect. 

Luckily, his first class on Mondays and Wednesdays was Ancient World History. It was the one subject he and his father could discuss without an argument breaking out, meaning their weekly ‘father-son quality time’ had been spent watching nearly every documentary, listening to nearly every podcast, and visiting nearly every museum exhibit that touched on any notable event between the Iron Age and the invention of Facebook. Over the past few weeks they hadn’t yet covered anything that Nico wasn’t already familiar with, so he had gotten in the habit of spending the first half of class soaking up caffeine and staring out the window, which was precisely what he was doing when he heard the dreaded phrase: “group project.”

Nico’s eyes snapped to the front of the room. He hated group projects. Not only was he forced to speak to random classmates, but he also had to rely on them. And they usually got things finished behind deadline and couldn’t write a thesis statement to save their lives. He would rather do the full project all on his own and let them just take his (usually very good) grade - but then they would see that as him being ‘nice’ or ‘cool’ and he didn’t want to give them the wrong impression… it was a minefield. The teacher began passing sheets out with the guidelines and rubric and his stomach dropped again when she announced that partners would be assigned. He sighed and started reading over the project requirements.

He had been sent to New Athens Prep because his father was concerned that he wasn’t ‘enjoying his youth’ and hoped that being around Percy would encourage him to ‘connect with his peers.’ As part of his agreement to attend, he had negotiated with his father to get a single dorm room in exchange for participating in an extracurricular club ‘so he could bond with new friends’ … but he had been thrilled to come across the school coding club, which required minimal social interaction: they were only communicating through an online forum as they built a website for a nearby nonprofit this semester. Suffice it to say, he could count the number of conversations he’d had with any of his new classmates on one hand. A group project would ruin his track record.

If he had any luck, his partner would agree to just split the project in half. He could take all of the research and write the 5 page paper, and all his partner would have to do is stand up in front of the class, talk about it for 10 minutes, and make everyone do some stupid activity. The teacher started pairing students on opposite ends of the alphabet: Austen and Williams, Brown and Tucker, Cooper and Thomas, di Angelo and Solace. Nico looked over at Kayla Solace and mentally shrugged. At least it wasn’t a completely new person. She made eye contact and gave him the exact same awkward half smile and wave Will had a few weeks ago. Nico rolled his eyes. Apparently being a complete dork was genetic.

The last half of class was open for groups to choose their topic: an example of Classical Greek culture that has impacted modern life. Kayla moved to take them empty seat next to him and opened her notebook.

Before she could start on whatever boring topic she had probably chosen, Nico spoke up. “Ok, so I think we should cover the Peloponnesian War - the structure of the US government was literally built based on lessons learned from Athens during that war. I’ll write the paper and can put the presentation together based on it, you just have to talk to the class and do whatever activity you want. Deal?” Nico began to write bullet points of the main themes of the paper. He glanced up when Kayla didn’t say anything.

She was just staring at him … with a hint of annoyance? “Absolutely not, that’s ridiculous.”

“Wh-ridiculous? How? You can sit back and do nothing for the next two weeks and get an A for just showing up and reading my bullet points off of slides. Only an idiot would turn that down. Don’t be stupid. What, do you think I won’t get us an A?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t get us an A?? Excuse me for actually wanting to do the project properly. Also, Classical Architecture is obviously more impactful than whatever war you’re talking about.”

“Architecture?? Whatever … whatever war?? Tell me how the way someone stacked stones on top of one another is more important than how the democracy of our country was created. Seriously, Solace.”

“Yes. Seriously. Also, I’m not doing the presentation all by myself just because you’re afraid of public speaking.”

“I- what- I’m not afraid, I just hate doing it… it’s pointless… and .. ” he trailed off, gesturing. He knew he looked like his dad in the middle of an argument at that exact moment and he hated it.

“Convincing.”

Nico just leaned back and glared at Kayla. She glared back. The bell rang and while everyone rushed to pack their things the teacher reminded them to tell what topic they picked before Wednesday. 

“We’ll continue this discussion at lunch, meet me at my table,” Kayla said, and left before Nico could argue. This was going to be a long two weeks.

\-----

After writing a thorough list of pros and cons for the Peloppensian War vs architecture during his next two classes, Nico bought an apple from the cafe and made his way toward the student lounge. He saw Kayla and a few of her friends sharing a table with her brother, Cecil, and a girl Nico didn't know. Percy caught his eye, a few tables away, but Nico gestured toward Kayla’s table. Percy must have taken this to mean that Nico was actually friends with them or something and gave two thumbs up and started shooing Nico away. He was firmly in the ‘you should be more social it’s good for you’ camp. Nico rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Nico pulled a chair up next to Kayla, sat down, and took a bite of his apple. Will, directly across from him, looked up and smiled. “Hey, Nico! So ... how have you liked being back?”

He was saved from suffering through what promised to be painfully cheerful small talk by Kayla's immediate launch into a speech. “Oh good, you’re here. So, I had second period with Austin, who was sitting next to Brittany and Jerome in World History this morning and he said that they already claimed the Peloponnesian War. We can’t double up on topics so that means we’re doing architecture - problem solved!”

“They already talked to -”

“Yep.”

“What if we do the battle of -”

“Nope.”

“Maybe we can talk them out of -”

“Absolutely not. We’re doing architecture. I’ll even let you skip the presentation, but you still have to help with the activity and I’m going to help with the research. You can write the paper if you really want to.”

Nico took another bite of his apple and just glared at Kayla for a few seconds while he chewed. “Fine.”

“Great! See you Wednesday.”

Nico gave Kayla what he hoped was an extra-strong glare, then took another bite of his apple. He heard Will quietly chuckle from across the table. “She does that to me too, it’s exhausting.”

Nico glanced over at Will, who didn’t seem as uncomfortable with (what he thought was) his murderous glare as the rest of the table, and couldn’t help but grin a little. He got up and walked over to Percy’s table without saying anything else.

“Hey! Nico! What was that all about, huh? You and Kayla Solace? Playground sweethearts all grown up?” Percy waggled his eyebrows. Nico just rolled his eyes and sat down next to Annabeth.

“Hey, I’m Jason.” A tall blond boy was sitting next to Percy. He had that all-American-jock look to him that Nico had learned to distrust at his old school. He didn’t say anything.

After a beat of awkward silence, Percy chimed in again. “Jason, meet my charismatic and outgoing cousin, Nico. His bark is worse than his bite, don't worry.” Percy turned back toward Nico, “Jason’s a stray I picked up in my chem class. Pretty hopeless but I guess we’ll keep him around,” he said as he shoved his shoulder.

“Whatever, bro, you just want someone to make sure you don’t blow up the lab.” Jason punched Percy’s shoulder. Nico tried very hard to not roll his eyes.

“Jason, if you can keep Percy from doing that all semester, you’ll get a metal,” Annabeth chimed in. She turned to Nico as the two boys continued their banter. “Jason just transferred in this year too, I can’t tell if Percy is in love or sizing up the competition.”

Nico offered a half smile. It was hard being the new kid, and while Jason seemed a little bro-ish for his tastes, it would be nice to have another person sit with them. Percy’s best friend, Grover, usually skipped lunch in favor of extra band practice. Nico wasn’t sure if Annabeth had close friends - they might all be books? Either way, he definitely didn’t enjoy being the third wheel. 

He forced a smile at some dumb joke Percy and Jason made and reconsidered - he might be more irritated with Percy and Jason being bros than he was with Percy and Annabeth being occasionally 'cute.' It was going to be a long school year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Freelance work, yo.


	3. Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, the Solangelo is beginning to creep in. Did I forget to mention that this has a lot of build-up?

“Wait move that over”  
“Why.”  
“Because it looks dumb there. Here - like this.”  
“Fine, whatever.”

Silence. Occasional loud typing. 

“No, Nico, format that the same as the last one.”  
“Why.”  
“Can I just do it?”  
“No, it’s my laptop. It looks fine.”  
“It’s going to make everyone bleed from their eyeballs.”  
“Good.”

Will smiled to himself. Nico was at their house working on a group project with Kayla in the living room. They had been arguing like that for the last hour. From what Will could gather, Nico did not put much effort into the design aspect of PowerPoints. Kayla was actually handling it pretty well, Will thought. He would’ve expected her to start yelling at Nico long before this. She put a lot of effort into aesthetics - everything from her school planner to her birthday parties had very specific and elaborate themes. Sitting through a clashing PowerPoint presentation would be enough to make her eye start twitching.

He pulled his attention back to his chemistry book and continued to trudge through the dozens of problems due the next day. After another hour or so (filled with more bickering from the other room), Kayla opened his door and leaned against his desk.

“Hello darling brother, can you please take Nico back to school before I strangle him?”

Will sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I can’t just drive people wherever, K. I got my license just, like, a week ago.”

“Yeah, but dad said you could use the car if you had practice after school or to take me to rehearsal and that sort of stuff … and this is basically for school - Nico came over for a project for class. So, it counts. Besides, mom and dad said they won’t be back until late, so if you don’t drive he’ll have to hang out here for, like, three more hours and I can’t promise I won’t strangle him before then. And I already told him you would anyway.”

Will sighed. “Fine, I’ll be out as soon as I finish these last problems. Try not to kill him for another 15 minutes.”

“No promises,” she said as she closed the door. 

Will knew he was a pushover, but it would be nice to have an excuse to drive on his own. His parents were over at a friend’s house for dinner tonight, leaving his dad’s car behind and the keys sitting on the kitchen counter. In the 9 days since he’d gotten his license he’d only gone out without his parents exactly three times: once to pick up Cecil for lunch last Sunday and twice when his mom sent him out for groceries. His dad had even suggested that he could occasionally use his car to drive to school at some point, rather than taking the bus and catching rides home with Cecil on days he had soccer practice, but the opportunity hadn’t yet presented itself.

He finished the last problem, leaned back, and rubbed his eyes. Maybe Nico would be ok stopping for a snack somewhere. His mom was a nurse and adamant about keeping only healthy food in the house. After that many chemistry problems he felt like he deserved some ice cream, or at least a candy bar. 

He got up and grabbed his favorite orange hoodie, cell phone, and wallet, then walked into the living room. Kayla had an episode of America’s Next Top Model on as she skimmed her biology textbook. Nico was slouched in the beat-up armchair in the corner with a look halfway between indifference and irritation on his face. Will had a fleeting thought that Nico - still in the grey chinos and black polo that were a part of the school uniform, and with his angular face framed by dark, wavy hair - would fit in with the contestants on the show. Nico looked up just as Will tried to clear that thought from his head - he’d known Nico since they were kids, stop being weird - and his disgruntled look was quickly replaced by a hopeful one. 

“Hey, uh, ready?” Will tried to pretend he didn’t feel his cheeks blushing and hoped the blue light from the TV masked them. Luckily, Nico probably didn’t even notice because before Will even finished the question he was up and grabbing his messenger bag.

Kayla didn’t even look up from her textbook. “Bye, Neeks. It’s been a pleasure.” She didn’t see the glare Nico threw her way. 

Will grabbed his dad’s keys off the counter and led Nico to the car parked in the driveway. They both got in, and Will proceeded to adjust his seat placement, check the mirrors, move the seat again, look behind them for anything blocking the driveway, and fidget with his seatbelt until it was comfortable. He looked over at Nico, who was scrolling through Instagram on his phone. “Put on your seatbelt.”

Without looking up, Nico replied, “Solace. It’s been, like, 20 minutes and you haven’t even turned the car on yet. Give me a two minute warning and I promise I’ll buckle-up.” 

“Hey, I’m going through the whole checklist, ok?”

“You have actually driven a car before, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, I got my license a couple weeks ago, so …” Will was starting to see why Kayla suggested strangling him.

“Whatever, I’ll take you crashing the car over certain death by boredom watching whatever show your sister picks out.” He put his seatbelt on. 

Will just rolled his eyes and started the car. He checked his blind spots again and turned the lights on. Nico sighed loudly and reached to turn up the radio. Will batted his hand away. “Driver picks.” 

Nico glared at him again.

Will just smiled, earning himself an annoyed look from Nico, and pushed the CD button. The car was old enough that radio or CDs were the only option, and Will had spent probably too much time burning his favorite albums in preparation of getting his license.

Will began driving toward school, but didn’t miss the surprised glance Nico gave him once the first few notes of OK Computer played. He smiled a little to himself. That’ll show him about making assumptions. 

Will lived about 30 minutes north of the school, and they drove through a small, sleepy town on their way. As they reached the first of three stoplights, Will glanced over at Nico. “Hey - are you hungry? I was thinking about stopping for something … maybe at the gas station or the diner near school or-”

“McDonalds?” Nico sounded genuinely excited. 

Will laughed. “Sick of all the health food at school already, then?”

Nico just nodded slightly and looked out the window. 

They pulled into the a parking spot in front of McDonalds few minutes later - Will didn’t trust himself to navigate the drive through quite yet. They ordered from the very bored employee and sat at a table outside. It was early October and the air was just a little brisk and smelled like campfires.

Will started on his small McFlurry. “So, how’s the project going?”

Nico just stared at him as he dipped a fry into his milkshake. A what-the-fuck-sort-of-smalltalk-is-that sort of stare. 

Will didn’t take long silences well. “Kayla can be a little intense but she’s obsessive about getting top grades so … at least there’s that.”

Nico just drew his eyebrows together a little and ate another fry. For someone who stuck with just a few looks - bored, skeptical, annoyed - Will realized his face was quite expressive. Something about his deep-set eyes. 

Not that Will was paying particular attention to his eyes. He was just trying to make conversation. He cleared his throat. “Right. Well … you’re probably in the standard freshman core classes, right? Bio, Lit & Comp … Geometry.” Very slight nod, or maybe just an unrelated tilt of the head. “I had Wilburn last year for Bio … sort of a pain but she teaches the AP class, which I’m really excited to take next year.” Still nothing. 

Another fry was dipped in the chocolate milkshake. Will knew his attempts at conversation were futile. He should just put them both out of their misery and take his phone out to look at whatever might have happened online in the past hour. But he couldn’t help himself. The thought of just sitting outside of an empty McDonald’s staring at their phones in silence for twenty minutes seemed even more awkward. So he kept going.

“So, what language are you taking?” Nico just looked up and raised his eyebrows. “Italian, probably … because … you’re Italian. Right.” Honestly, usually Will was good at talking to people. Maybe it was because most people made an effort to respond?

“What creative class are you in, then?” They all had to take at least one art, music, or drama class a semester, so they’d be ‘well-rounded’ for their college applications. “I’ve been doing piano … I’m terrible at it, especially compared to Kayla, but it’s good for dexterity, you know. I mean, because I want to be a doctor. So … hands.” Gods, he was actually getting worse.

Nico was just staring at him, one eyebrow raised. But maybe with a hint of amusement. Or it could be suppressed panic that his ride back to school was obviously having some sort of lapse in cognitive function.

“So I’m guessing you’re in drawing, maybe?” Not even a change in expression. “Orchestra? Theater crew?” Nothing. If Will wasn’t getting so desperate to just get him to verbally acknowledge literally anything at this point, he would have been impressed with how long Nico was holding out. “Choir, then? Or you’re the star of the fall improv show??”

At that Nico let out a quick laugh. Will couldn’t even bring himself to be annoyed because he was caught off guard by how striking Nico looked when he smiled. Seriously, he must be losing it. It was probably the stress of keeping up a solid ten minutes of a one-sided conversation.

“You got it, Solace. My long-term plan is to end up on SNL.” He went back to dipping fries in last of his milkshake, a shadow of a grin still on his face. 

“Jesus Christ, di Angelo. You’re a dick. I felt like I was going crazy.”

“I mean … I wouldn’t rule that out.”

Will just rolled his eyes and finished the last of his McFlurry. He had put enough effort into drawing those few sentences out and felt like an idiot the whole time. He’d take the awkward silence from now on, thank you.

They both got up and threw their cups in the trash. Radiohead swelled up again to fill the silence as they pulled out of the parking lot.

“Photography,” Nico said suddenly, as Exit Music came on.

Will glanced over at him.

“That’s my elective.”

“Cool. Michael took that … um, my brother, you might not-”

“No, yeah, I remember him.”

The music filled the silence again. Will wasn’t sure what to say next. He was comfortable talking to people (the McDonald’s scene not included) but he still wasn’t used to Michael coming up so casually. Half of him was stuck on his brother’s name and flashes of the photos Michael had taken for class swirling through his mind, the other half of him wanted to push past the moment, not think about it, pretend that there was nothing unusual.

“Michael was always so nice to me, when we lived here. Even though I was just Bianca’s little brother.”

Will was glad he didn’t say something like ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘that must be hard’ or something else painfully cliche. He was sick of hearing those things. What were people apologizing for, anyway? And of course it was hard, way to state the obvious. But then, Will would feel guilty for thinking those things and would smile and say ‘thank you’ all the same. 

But Nico understood. Of course.

“Bianca was really great too. I remember thinking how brave and confident she was.”

“She was.”

They fell back into silence, but it wasn’t awkward. It was a silence that acknowledged what they had both lost, and it was a little easier because they both knew the other understood what it felt like, what it meant. There was no pressure to say a stupid cliche or pretend like it was all ok.

“Did it get easier? Her being gone?”

Nico thought for a minute. “A little. I mean, not really. I can’t believe how long it’s been, it still feels like she was still here just a few months ago. But it’s normal now, I guess. Or I’ve gotten used to it, at least - the feeling of her being gone. Birthdays and holidays are really hard, at first. But then they get sort of normal too. I think the worst now is when I almost forget something important and then it hits me in the middle of the day … like when I first came back here and I was walking through the airport and I walked past this ice cream place in the concourse and I suddenly remembered this trip we took, just the two of us, to visit our grandparents. I must have been, like, 9 or something, and Bianca took the whole trip so seriously, making sure we knew where our gate was and checking in with the flight attendant before our plane even started boarding like dad told her to. But I saw it as a chance for us to have an adventure and I wanted to see everything in the airport, even though we’d walked through it with dad at least a few times a year, and let’s be honest, it isn't even that big of an airport. She wanted to stay at the gate so we wouldn’t miss the boarding call, but finally she let us get ice cream at that stupid shop and made it seem like a huge adventure and I still remember what ice cream she bought me and-” his voice cracked a little and he stopped. Or maybe he realized Will was still there. “Memories like that, when they come out of nowhere. Those are the hardest now.”

Will just nodded, and they fell into silence again. Then Fitter Happier came on, and the computer voice was jarring and out of place and weirder than usual and Will skipped to the next song. They drove past a couple farmhouses and the diner, Nico staring out the window and Will focusing on the road, his mind flicking through memories of Michael and Bianca and Nico as a kid. Finally, the school loomed up in the distance, the main building tall and brick and covered in ivy, flanked by dorms on either side. 

Will stopped in front of the boys’ dorm and Nico got out. “Hey, thanks for telling me. The truth, I mean. For not, like, just repeating some Hallmark card that’s been mass produced.”

Nico leaned down to the passenger window, completely serious. “If I ever sound like a Hallmark card you’ll know I’ve been replaced by a cyborg and I give you full permission to decapitate me.”

“Nerd.”

“You’re the one excited for AP Bio next year.” Nico grinned and Will couldn’t think of a response. Or words, really. “Thanks for the ride, Will.”

Nico was inside the dorm building and probably in his room before Will realized that he was absently staring at the dashboard and smiling faintly and still sitting in the circle drive of their school for no reason. He switched CDs to something loud and distracting and headed back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I'm a little neurotic and overplanned the school elements.
> 
> School colors: grey, navy, black  
> Mascot: owl  
> Uniform: grey, sapphire, black, white - knee-length skirts or chino shorts/pants w/ polos or button-downs, knit sweaters
> 
> Nico's schedule:   
> Mon/Wed: [S1: Ancient World History, S2: Modern world history], Biology, Italian 3, Computing 1  
> Tues/Thurs:, Literature & Composition, Geometry, [S1: US Civil War, S2: US History Post 1945], Finance  
> Fri: Health, PE, [S1: Photography 1, S2: Photography 2]
> 
> Will's schedule:   
> Mon/Wed: Literary Analysis, Algebra, Chemistry, Public Speaking  
> Tues/Thurs: Latin 2, Government & Politics, Physics, Biomedical Science  
> Fri: Piano, Yearbook, Food and Nutrition


	4. dating advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason is a cutie.

Nico sat down at their usual lunch table with his usual lunch: coffee and some chips. A few minutes later Jason sat down across from him. 

“Dude.” 

Nico looked up from his phone. Jason was looking at him anxiously. Nico was tempted to look behind him to see who Jason was talking to. Up to that point, they hadn’t actually had a conversation that didn’t include Percy or Annabeth, and Nico had no idea what Jason could possibly need from him. He just raised his eyebrows in response.

“What do you know about Piper McLean?”

Nico took a few seconds to even place who she was. “Jason, I’m a freshman. All I know is that she’s two grades above me. ...why?”

“Good point.” He took a deep breath. “OK, so, she’s friends with my roommate and she’s amazing, but we don’t have any classes together, and apart from her coming by to hang out with Leo I don’t really run into her, so I’m trying to figure out … something. I don’t even know where to start.”

Nico just stared at him. Jason was asking for … girl advice? Asking him? Jason, who looked like Captain America and was probably the dream boyfriend of half the girls at school, was asking Nico? 

He responded with a very eloquent, “You … what?”

“What should I do, man? She hung out in our room for a while this weekend because she and Leo have some test coming up and like … she’s so different, you know?” No, I no clue, Nico thought. But Jason didn’t wait for encouragement. “She’s super smart, and really pretty but, like, doesn’t know it or care or something, and is just really funny and real and … now what?”

Nico was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Jason was asking him for advice. “Maybe Percy would have an idea…” seeing as he’s actually dating someone. And a girl, at that, he thought.

“No, he and Annabeth are visiting her parents. They’re not coming back until Wednesday.” Right, he had forgotten. Well, that explains their empty lunch table. “And I can’t exactly ask Leo - that would be weird, right? Since he’s known her longer and we’re friends but I’m just his roommate of like, 2 months. Plus, he might tell her. He’s a cool guy but doesn’t take anything seriously and I don’t want to mess this up. I’m just afraid I’ll see her in the hallway and do something weird or say the wrong thing or … I just need a game-plan. You have to help me.”

He was looking at Nico so earnestly that he couldn’t say no, even though he was sure that any advice he could offer would be completely useless. “Um, sure. So … what do you know about her so far? What does she like?” Maybe Jason just needed a sounding board, he could do that.

Jason launched into what he had covertly learned about Piper McLean since her visit to their room over the weekend and from Leo’s passing comments. 

Nico’s mind drifted back to the only time he had been in what someone might, just barely, consider almost relationship. It was with a guy at his old school, Tyler, a couple grades above him. He played a sport every season and was pretty popular and either fully ignored or casually bullied Nico at school. Basically, they moved in completely different worlds. But they lived on the same street and ended up being the only teenagers at last year’s neighborhood holiday party, hosted by Tyler’s parents. Tyler had grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet and told Nico they’d be splitting it. Nico preferred what seemed like a temporary truce born out of necessity over making small talk with his middle-aged neighbors while his father networked and schmoozed and commented on Nico’s anitsocial behavior, so he went with it.

Nico wasn't a lightweight - his father was a believer in having wine with dinner and insisting Nico could identify good scotch - but splitting a pint of whiskey was definitely more than he was used to. They had gone up to Tyler's room at some point during the party, and near the end of the bottle Nico remembered being surprised by Tyler leaning in and kissing him. His foggy brain had decided to be confused later and they sloppily made out until Tyler's mom called up the stairs for him to come down and say goodbye to some neighbors.

At her voice, Nico had frozen and the reality of the situation started to sink in. But Tyler had just gotten up, tucked his shirt back in, and smoothed his hair. Before he opened his door, he had turned back to Nico - still half in shock on his bed - and suggested he leave his cell number.

After a few minutes of staring around Tyler's room in a daze, Nico had straightened out his own clothes and, with a second of hesitation, wrote his number on a notecard sitting on Tyler's desk. Nico found his father downstairs and sat through the end of a conversation about rising real estate prices, then they said goodbye to the hosts (Tyler nowhere to be seen) and walked home.

Nico had seen Tyler in the hall the next day, and the older boy’s eyes his slid past Nico as if nothing has happened at all. But a few days later, Nico got a text: come over, basement door open. That was the start of months of Nico getting a text once or twice a week and walking down the street to spend a few hours fooling around in Tyler's room. They didn't hang out other than that or acknowledge each other in the halls at all. Nico had been fine with that, though. He didn't think Tyler was actually someone he'd like very much if he got to know him. His dad had already enrolled him at New Athens Prep in the fall, which allowed Nico to keep himself from overthinking it all too much. Either way, he knew it had an expiration date, and he was still a teenager and bored and Nico obviously wasn't the first guy Tyler had been with, so Nico looked at it all as a sort of training opportunity. It never got too far, and one day a couple weeks before the school year ended, one of Tyler's friends unexpectedly knocked on the front door while Nico was over. Tyler hurriedly made Nico leave through the garage, and that was it. Radio silence. He didn't get another text, and ended up leaving LA a few months later.

Nico pulled himself out of his memories to find Jason still talking about Piper. “... and Leo said that one time Piper stole a car. Like, an actual car. I mean … maybe he was kidding, but it really didn’t seem like it. Still, though, how do you ask out a girl who maybe stole a car?”

Jason seemed to actually expect an answer to this one. “Right. Um, well, at my old school a girl transferred into my science class and traded someone to be my lab partner so she could talk to me. I mean, it was a little much but…”

“Did it work?”

“Work?”

“Like, did you guys date after that or anything?”

“Wha - no. No, nothing really happened.”

“So I shouldn’t do that?” 

“Well, you could still try it. It’s flattering.”

“But it didn’t work for her. You just didn’t like her?” 

“No, she was nice and pretty cool. Really good lab partner.” Nico could feel his face getting red.

“But …” Jason was searching Nico’s face for the real answer.

“But what?”

“But what went wrong?” At Nico’s obvious hesitation, he added, “Dude, I’m trying to cover all my bases here. I don’t want to make the same mistake that girl did with you. I mean, when I ask out Piper.”

Jason looked at him so anxiously that Nico broke.

“Fine. It didn’t work for her because I wasn’t into … her. Like, the her part of her.” There was definitely a better way to say that. Nico channeled all of his angst into glaring at Jason’s lunch tray.

“The ‘her’ part of … oh. Oh, well that’s a legit reason.”

Nico would have been thrilled to be swallowed by the earth right about then. He braced himself for Jason to ask some uncomfortable question or say something terrible and backhanded like ‘I still like you even though you’re gay’ or something.

“What about the Halloween dance?”

The abrupt change in the direction of conversation snapped Nico out of his whirlpool of thoughts. “The … what?”

“Like, maybe I could ask Piper to the dance? Next time she’s in my room or something. But I don’t think I could do it with Leo just sitting there… maybe I’d need to find her during lunch…”

And Jason was back to rambling on about Piper. Nico took the opportunity to mentally collect himself. He hadn’t ever really said it out loud to anyone before. Not that he actually said it. But even with Tyler neither of them really verbally acknowledged anything. Jason just moved on in the conversation as if he had said he preferred brunettes or something. 

They continued through lunch with Nico contributing nods or eye rolls at various ideas and Jason finally decided to keep it simple: Piper was supposed to study with Leo again the next night, and Jason would make an excuse to go to the library at the same time she left their room, and then ask her to the Halloween dance while he walked with her. If she said yes, Jason would then suggest going out to dinner this Friday to get to know each other better. Nico was exhausted just witnessing the amount of planning Jason was putting into this - he thought he overanalyzed things.

As they walked out of the student lounge, Jason asked, “So who do you want to go with?”

Nico gave him an incredulous look. “Me? What makes you think I’m even going?”

“Come on, Percy is going to insist you go, you know it. And then you’ll be stuck there with him and Annabeth, and, if my plan works out, me and Piper. Besides, I owe you for helping me work through all that. I can help you ask someone out!”

At that, Nico looked at him in horror. “No, I am absolutely not asking anyone out. And you aren’t helping me. How about you pay me back by convincing Percy to not pester me to come.”

Jason sighed. “Fine, whatever. You’re sure there’s nobody you want to go with?”

Nico glared at him again, then suddenly a voice came from his other side, “Hey, Nico!”

He turned to see Will half-waving as he walked the other direction down the hallway. Nico half-smiled and nodded in response.

He turned back to Jason, who was watching him closely. “What?” He could feel his cheeks starting to burn.

“So, nobody, huh?”

“Shut up Jason. Or I’ll tell Piper you have a secret armpit fetish.”

Jason stopped in his tracks, causing a student walking right behind them to bump into him. Nico had to fight to keep a straight face. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

“Fine, fine. You’re not going to the dance, Percy won’t bug you. You win.”


	5. ch 5

Will was on the verge of falling asleep when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He jerked awake, earning himself a glare from his Public Speaking teacher, Mr. Lucian. They were wrapping up the ‘informative speech’ portion of the class and Will had been sitting through an hour of speeches about everything from ocelots to the history of wristwatches. He glanced down at his phone and saw a text from Kayla.

K: ur bringing nico over after soccer practice - our presentation is tomorrow and we need to go over everything  
W: what if i have plans?  
K: right. moms working until 7 + calling in a pizza for dinner so i know u’ll b home for good foodz

She sent him Nico’s number without waiting for his response and he rolled his eyes. She was right, he didn’t have plans besides finishing his paper for Lit Analysis. He made sure Mr. Lucian was focused on the current speaker (Maria Regalo informing everyone about the importance of a good skincare routine) before adding Nico’s number to his contacts and texting him.

W: hey, it’s will. kayla says im giving u a ride over when i finish soccer practice?  
Nico: k  
W: we’re usually done by 430, back field  
Nico: cool thx

\----

Nico showed up to the field about 4, finding a shaded spot under a large tree. Will watched him as he got his laptop out, noticing that he had changed out of his school uniform into a very grungy-punk sort of outfit that fit his personality much better than chinos and polos. Suddenly, a soccer ball hit Will in the stomach, snapping Will’s thoughts from Nico’s leather jacket back to the drill the team was doing. He glared at Cecil, who wasn’t trying very hard to hide his laugher, while the coach yelled at him for not staying focused.

Practice ended with sprints, and despite the chilly mid-October air, Will could feel that the back of his shirt was drenched with sweat. He waved bye to Cecil and grabbed his gym bag and backpack. 

“Hey, ready?” Will dropped his bags next to the tree Nico was sitting against. He looked up and nodded. Will knelt down and pulled his shirt off, grabbing a dry one out of his gym bag. “Cool, our mom getting a pizza so if there are any toppings you want I can text them to her,” he said as he pulled on the fresh shirt. “We usually get green peppers and bacon or pepperoni or something but as long as you don’t want banana peppers we can change it up.”

Will looked up as he zipped up his bag and stood back up. Nico eyes followed his movement but he didn’t say anything. Then he cleared his throat and closed his laptop. “Whatever is fine.”

Will thought he saw a blush spreading across Nico’s neck as he put his laptop into his bag and stood, but Nico started walking toward the parking lot before Will could tell for certain. Will hurried after him, confused by the whole exchange. Did he say something weird? Did Nico secretly love banana peppers? Did his gym bag smell bad?

Never one to let an awkward silence sink in, Will started to ramble about soccer practice and the coach and their upcoming game to fill the space. Nico spent most of the ride home staring out the window without responding and eventually Will gave up and turned the music louder instead - Queens of the Stone Age made good filler. Whatever, if Nico didn’t want to talk to him Will wasn’t going to make a fool of himself again.

As soon as they walked in the door Kayla jumped up and started listing off everything she had prepped for the presentation. Nico followed her into the living room and Will dropped his bags in his room before showering.

\----

He had just finished his Lit Analysis paper when his mom got home. He heard her keys drop on the kitchen counter followed by, “dinner’s here!”

Will emailed his paper to his school account and walked into the kitchen. On the rare nights that his mom brought home takeout they just ate at the kitchen island. He poured some juice and gave his mom a kiss on the cheek as she set plates and napkins out for everyone.

Kayla and Nico came in and they all grabbed slices and sat on the bar stools along the island while his mom bit into her slice, leaning against the sink. “So, how was everyone’s day?”

Will looked over at Kayla, always the first to answer. She went into detail about the new piece she had started in her piano class and the project she and Nico had just finished. That drew his mom’s attention more fully to Nico.

“Hey Nico,” she said with a smile “How are you liking being back here? How does our little town stack up against LA?”

Will expected Nico’s standard response to questions - one or two words, if that. He was maybe still a little resentful that Nico basically ignored him the whole way home, not that it mattered. He was surprised when Nico gave her a small smile and respond politely and with multiple sentences in a row. “It’s nice being back here, thank you ma’am. I missed the changing seasons, especially.”

Will could tell Kayla was surprised too. She stopped chewing and looked at Nico, confused. But their mom just smiled wider and kept asking Nico about his classes and LA and how his dad was doing. Will got over his initial shock and reached for another piece of pizza while Nico continued to answer every question and actually laughed quietly in response to some of her jokes about the town.

Eventually, Will’s mom put her plate in the sink and announced that she was going to put laundry in before heading back to the hospital to pick up their dad. “Will, can you drive Nico back to school? Nico, feel free to take the leftover slices with you.” Will just nodded. His mom ignored Kayla’s horrified face - cold pizza for breakfast was her favorite - and started putting the remaining pizza into a large tupperware container.

Will’s irritation with Nico had dissipated the second he had smiled and responded to his mom with “ma’am.” It was completely because of how respectful and nice he was and had nothing to do with Will liking his smile or anything sappy like that. Will told himself that any fleeting thoughts about Nico’s looks were directly caused by the paper on The Great Gatsby he had finished literally an hour ago. It was all because of Jay Gatsby and his obsession with Daisy’s beauty and that was it.

To break that train of thought, Will jumped up and gathered their empty plates and started to wash them. Kayla announced that they had a few more things to finish before the project was actually done, and Nico followed her back into the living room. Will’s mom ruffled his hair as she leaned back against the counter next to him.

“He’s always been such a sweet boy. I’m glad I get to see him again.” Will just nodded while scrubbing the plates. “You all grow up so fast. He’s so tall now. I think the last time I saw him he was barely over four feet tall. But then again you’ve grown about a foot since then too.”

She looked at Will thoughtfully and he just glanced up and smiled at her. She sighed. “I forget how exciting high school is sometimes.” Will wasn’t sure what to make of that statement. “He is getting quite handsome, don’t you think?”

Will nearly dropped the glass he was holding. “Mom! What - I don’t… why would I...” He could feel his cheeks betraying him with a deep blush.

She just laughed and ruffled his hair again. “Will, you forget that I’m your mother and by default I can read your mind. He’s a catch, I say go for it.” And with that she left the kitchen and Will was stuck standing at the sink, hands covered in soapy bubbles, staring after her in shock.

He couldn’t decide if he was more mortified that his mom identified his feelings before he had admitted them to himself (but who was he fooling, the first day that Nico showed up at school again Will was a goner) or relieved that he could give up trying to convince himself that he wasn’t developing a huge crush on Nico. He reminded himself that nothing was probably going to come of it. Who knew where Nico landed on the whole sexuality spectrum, or if someone who wore Doc Martens and punk shirts would be interested in someone like Will even if he did swing that way.

Will took a deep breath and finished the dishes. He told himself that either way, Nico was good to talk to (when he felt like talking) and if they just ended up being friends or whatever that was fine. No pining. Will had embarrassed himself enough at his old school by having a series of very obvious and short-lived crushes on an assortment of people (all quiet and mysterious though, he definitely had a type), and after near-constant teasing by Cecil once each of the crushes faded out, he promised himself that with a new school he would impose a very strict no-pining rule. He had been pretty successful so far. The only people he had dated were Lou Ellen, who had asked Will out before he even had a chance to develop some weird and detailed expectation of their future love in his head, and Alex, a guy a grade above him who dropped a note in his locker on Valentines last year, again catching Will off-guard. They had gone out on occasional dates, and while fooling around was definitely fun and heated, it turned out they had nearly nothing in common besides that and it fizzled out after a few weeks. He promised himself that he was going to play it cool this time too. So cool, in fact, that Cecil would have no ammo to mock him with and Nico would probably never be the wiser. If he was lucky, in a couple months he’d forget he had any sort of crush at all and could bring his full attention back to his schoolwork like he was supposed to.

At about this point in Will’s mental pep-talk, Nico came back into the kitchen. “So … how’s that sink doing?”

Will turned around and laughed slightly. “Yeah, just zoning out. A bit burnt out from that paper I guess. You ready?”

“McDonalds?” Nico said with a small smile. Will reminded himself to be cool, so he just nodded and grabbed the keys.

He couldn’t help smiling at Nico as they got in the car, though. He hoped it wasn’t a big dumb ‘I have a crush’ on you smile, but a normal ‘I’m excited for a McFlurry’ smile. Nico didn’t seem to notice either way.

They sat at the same table as last time, even though it’s getting pretty cold out. Will was glad - the only thing more uncomfortable than trying to make conversation with someone who maybe doesn’t want to have one would be the bored McDonald’s employee listening to Will’s painful attempts.

Will tried to think of a good conversation starter that met the qualifications of being not stupid, somewhat interesting, and definitely didn’t signal that he had a newly realized crush on the boy sitting across from him. He wasn’t having much luch.

To his surprise, Nico spoke first. “I forgot how nice your mom is.”

“Oh, yeah. She always really liked you.”

“I always liked her too. Does she still make those date things? That are like, somehow healthy but taste like caramels?” Nico was grinning down at his fries with the memory.

Will laughed, “yeah, every holiday. I’ll bring you some next time she makes a batch.” That’s a friend thing, right? He stopped caring when Nico looked up at him and smiled wider. 

They fell into silence again and Will was trying to think of what to say next but, again, Nico spoke first. “So, a doctor?”

“A - oh. Me? Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Well, with both of my parents working at the hospital I used to take the bus there after school and hang out until they were finished with work and … I don’t know. The doctors always seemed so cool. They knew so much. And the nurses liked me and would let me watch the surgeons through the windows sometimes if it was ok with the families and I loved it. I don’t remember when I decided, but I don’t know, I’ve never even throught about doing something else.” 

They were both quiet for a few moments and Will dug out an M&M then looked up at Nico, who was watching him. “What about you?”

Nico looked surprised by the question. “Me what?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Oh. I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

“But how do you pick your classes, then?”

Nico let out a small laugh. “Will, not all of us have ten-year plans. I pick classes that I think sound interesting. That’s it.”

“Ok, so what are you taking? Apart from the mandatory stuff?”

Nico sighed and started picking at something stuck to the table. “History, mostly.”

“So… a professor?”

Nico looked up and gave Will a crooked smile. Will ignored his stomach feeling like it was dropping a little. “Will, do you see me writing lesson plans and lecturing in front of a classroom?”

Will smiled back. “Ok, no. I guess not. But I could see you being a writer or something. Doing research and writing history books.”

Nico looked back down at the table and started picking again. “Yeah, my dad would love that. Huge job market there,” he said with sarcasm.

“So what does he think you should do?”

“Honestly? No clue. Stop being so ‘antisocial’ for one. His would probably die of happiness if I wore a suit every day and had a hundred people working under me and made loads of money. But we’ve never really talked about it.”

Will didn’t really know how to respond to that so he redirected. “Ok, so what do you do in your free time?”

Nico looked up at him, confused. “Uh, I don’t know. Read. Coding club stuff.”

“Coding? Like, HTML and stuff?”

“Yeah, and stuff. It’s cool. It’s like learning a new language and figuring out a puzzle all at the same time.”

“Very cool,” Will stood up and threw his empty cup in the trash. A second later Nico did the same and they walked toward the car. “So, you all are working on a project for some local place right?”

They spent the rest of the car ride talking about the website the club was building. Will didn’t understand half of the things Nico was talking about, but he was just happy that Nico was doing more than passively answering questions, he was actually having a full conversation with him. Will finally saw the excitable kid Nico had been and was glad to know that part of him wasn’t totally gone. 

They got to the school and Nico grinned over at Will. “Thanks for the ride.” Will suddenly felt awkward again. The inside of the car was lit up by the school’s lights and it caused dramatic shadows to fall over Nico’s face. Will thought again about he could be a model, the tried to push that idea down. He realized that he hadn’t responded yet.

“Yeah, any time. I mean, I know your presentation is tomorrow so it isn’t like you’ll be working on it at our house anymore, but I mean … if you ever get sick of school food or whatever or just need to get off campus...” finally got to the point, great job Will. “...you have my number.” That’s a friend thing to say, right? Not, like, a pick-up line thing to say?

Nico smiled at him and nodded. He said “I’ve got it,” and before Will could think of anything else (or word vomit again), Nico was already at the door to his building.

Will spent the whole drive home alternating between trying to talk himself out of having a crush on Nico and replaying every time he laughed or smiled since they left his house. He definitely didn’t count that as pining, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took forever to post and I am the worssst. I'm really excited for an upcoming chapter I have outlined, though, so I'll try to post more frequently so I can get to it faster :-)


	6. Asclepius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> texts and class presentations

It was the last day of the group presentations for Ancient World History. Over the past two weeks, Nico had been forced to play Classical Architecture Bingo, a Family-Feud style game about regions of Ancient Greece, and so many different takes on Jeopardy he thought he would have a pretty good chance on the actual show at this point. This final, last presentation was something about medicine. The two students at the front of the class - Nico still refused to put effort into learning their names - started reading off their index card notes about the different medical discoveries and theories with the caduceus displayed on the screen behind them. Nico rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone.

N: I can’t take a profession seriously that doesn’t actually do any research into its own history.  
W: oh, hi to you too. what?  
N: I’m sitting through presentation #6,785 and they’ve chosen Ancient Greek Medicine and have a caduceus up.  
W: oh?  
N: Yeah. Ridiculous. It :should: be the Rod of Asclepius.  
W: of course.  
N: And we’re even in :Ancient World History: doing the unit on :Ancient Greece: so accuracy regarding the Greek gods should really be important here, right?  
W: yes, definitely.  
N: You do know the difference, future doctor?  
W: sure, the right one belongs to Asclepius, obviously.  
N: … and … ?  
N: … please don’t be looking it up right now ...  
W: i would never. i definitely know that The caduceus is the traditional symbol of Hermes and feature two snakes winding around an often winged staff. It is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius, especially in the United States. The two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, eloquence, negotiation, alchemy and wisdom.  
N: Oh my gods that’s directly from Wikipedia. I’m never going to a doctor again. The whole profession is a lie.

Suddenly the bell rang and Nico realized that he paid attention to exactly none of the presentation. He gave 3 out of 5s for each category of the peer review sheet and added a note about the inaccurate use of the caduceus before zipping up his bag and heading to his next class. When he sat down in biology he pulled out his phone to see a few new texts from Will.

W: that seems like a pretty drastic move  
W: i mean, maybe doctors are so focused on how to keep people alive. so maybe cut them some slack on getting the number of snakes wrong, you know?

Nico smiled down at this phone and rolled his eyes. He glanced up and realized that the girl sitting next to him was giving him a weird look. He remembered that his smile usually came off a bit creepy and dropped it, glaring at her a little before responding to Will.

N: I’m just saying that if the medical profession takes itself so seriously it should probably use the right symbols.  
W: fair. i promise that if i ever come across the opportunity to choose between the caduceus and the rod of the medicine guy once i’m a doctor, i will choose the right one.  
N: … which is ….  
W: one snake.   
W: but really, did you ever think the doctors were just being extra? like, maybe they figured two snakes were better than one or something?  
N: No. Two snakes is Hermes and nobody would want him hanging around a surgery.

Nico glanced up at the professor and realized he was behind on taking notes. He did actually need to keep up in biology - cell structures and organ functions and photosynthesis didn’t come as easily to him as history did. He copied down the main points and diagrams and glanced down at his phone again. Will hadn’t responded. He paused for a second, disappointed. Then he mentally shook himself - why was he disappointed? Will was just Kayla’s brother. Who was pretty nice and weirdly earnest about things and had a good smile that sort of lit up his face and made Nico consider going to more school soccer games - but Nico had just texted him because of the very relevant presentation earlier. That was all, he told himself. 

Nico put his phone back in his bag and made himself focus on the professor for the rest of class. The bell finally rang for lunch and only after he put his things away and walked into the hallway did he allow himself - er, think to - get his phone out. He ignored the flash of excitement when he saw two new texts. And then extra ignored the small drop in his stomach when they both turned out to be from Hazel.

H: hiiiii! how’s school going? your dad said you’ll be back for thanksgiving?   
H: mom is making this huge dinner and wants me to find out if you want anything special. i told her pizza but she just rolled her eyes at me and said that didn’t count.

He mentally sighed. Hazel’s enthusiasm for holidays and family events was only outdone by her mom, who insisted on making everything seem like it was pulled straight out of a lifestyle magazine. 

N: First choice: McDonalds. Second choice: coffee. If she doesn’t go for either of those … tiramisu?  
H: oh good call. see you in a few weeks! <3 <3 <3

Nico spent lunch pointedly :not: looking over at Will (not that he had any reason to) while trying to convince Percy that no, he wasn’t going to be at the Halloween dance (with no help from Jason, who was completely focused on Piper instead of backing Nico up like he said he would). He finally let himself to take his phone out once he dropped into his seat at the back of his Italian class. He sunk lower into his chair to hide his phone as his professor walked into the classroom and made sure to keep his face neutral when he saw that the new messages were from Will.

W: i feel like this is a good time to confess that i’m going as a doctor for halloween  
W: i promise to inform everyone about the improper use of the caduceus

Nico couldn’t help but grin a little.

N: That’s a start.  
W: what about you?  
N: I already do tell everyone about the improper use of the caduceus.  
W: no i meant halloween :-D  
N: Oh right. I’m going to be the invisible man.  
W: that’s cool. how? wrap your face up or something?  
N: No, like, so invisible it’ll be like I’m not even there. Because I won’t be.

Nico slipped his phone back in his pocket just in time for his professor to walk over with his test. He glanced down - 92%, about what he expected. He was basically fluent in Italian, but because he only spoke it with his father and occasionally watched movies in it, his spelling was terrible. He flipped through and saw, sure enough, that all of the points off were for leaving out h’s or not using enough c’s. His professor began to go through the test and he pulled his phone out again.

W: !!! not going?? that’s dumb.  
W: it isn’t like you even have to go anywhere. you should at least come for a little. your glaring would add to the spooky atmosphere.  
W: joking. that was a joke.  
N: Yeah I know, just had to put my phone away for a second.  
W: oh right, this school thing  
N: Exactly.  
W: but really, come to halloween! kayla is making me drive her and cecil is convinced he’ll have a date by then so it’ll be just me and lou ellen   
N: So I’d be a third wheel? Appealing.  
W: with who, me and lou ellen? no, she and i were a thing for barely three weeks our freshman year and realized that it made no sense. 100% platonic friends. also i think she’s actually talking to some senior girl right now so knowing her she’ll ditch me pretty early in the night  
N: Oh sorry, didn’t mean to assume  
W: it’s cool, a lot of people think that   
W: but the /point/ is that cecil and lou ellen are both going to be chasing after whoever and i’ll be stuck hanging out with my little sister and her friends all night. at the very least you could come down for a little while and critique everyone’s costumes. i’m sure there’ll be something worse than a caduceus. :-) 

Nico stared at his phone, thinking. He was only vaguely aware that his professor had begun to move on to the next chapter in their book. Part of Nico entertained visions of the two of them sitting in a dark corner and joking and leaning in to one another close enough for Nico to see the freckles that dusted Will’s nose ... but then the other half of him cringed at the thought of the miserable forced experience of school dances and the drama that everyone would create and way people sized each other up in such a superficial way and it wouldn’t be as if he and Will would just be by themselves the whole time and he was probably just asking out of pity anyway and Will himself had said he had dated his friend, who was a girl, so anything Nico had been halfway entertaining was probably a lost cause in the first place …

But then his fingers blatantly ignored the battle in his head and typed out ‘Fine, but you owe me.’ 

Already regretting his response, Nico dropped his phone back into his bag and began to dread the moment Percy found out he had changed his mind about going.

\---

By the time Nico made it back to his room after his final class of the day he was already trying to convince himself that the his nerves were about attending a school dance in general and picking a costume by Friday and not because he had basically agreed to spend the evening with Will in what was absolutely not a date but they would be surrounded by plenty of other people who would be on dates so the likelihood of something awkward happening was high. He kept reminding himself that at least the dance was literally across the lawn from his dorm room so escape would be easy.

He realized that he had been staring at the same question in his geometry textbook for at least five minutes without processing anything when there was a knock at the door. He opened it to find Jason smiling at him.

“Hey, Piper and Leo and I are going to catch the late bus into town and eat at the diner - want to come with?” He must have seen some of the anxiety in Nico’s face because he quickly added “You ok? You don’t have to, it’s just the food here is getting sort of old and Piper says she’ll cover the cab back to school and-”

“Yeah, I’ll go. It isn’t that. I … I’m going to the stupid dance,” Nico grumbled.

“Wow dude, you somehow make it sound like punishment. Dances are meant to be fun, you know.”

Nico rolled his eyes and grabbed his coat. He didn’t say anything as they started to walk toward the front of the building.

“Wait… who talked you into going? You were still a pretty ironclad ‘no’ at lunch.”

Nico sighed and looked over at Jason, then back down at the hallway tiles. “Will Solace.”

A look of understanding came over Jason’s face. “That makes sense. I totally called that, bro,” he laughed. “Good for you. If you need me to still play wingman or anything just say the word, I can -”

“It isn’t a date,” Nico added quickly. He didn’t want Jason, or anyone, to get the wrong idea or think he had some sort of expectation or hope or - just no. They had reached the front door and he could see Leo and Piper standing outside. He grabbed the handle and held it closed, looking directly at Jason. “Really, don’t mention Will to anyone. He was just saying how he’d be tagging along with his sister and her friends all night and he’d be bored and that it isn’t like I’d have to go very far and should at least go to hang out for a little bit. It isn’t like he asked me to go with him or something, not like that. Besides, he dated Lou Ellen last year, I think he’s straight.”

Jason just raised his eyebrows. “Sure, dude, whatever. I won’t mention it to anyone. But still… if you want me to talk you up or anything I can do it really causally …”

“Jason, no. It isn’t … we aren’t even really friends. It’s dumb. I’ll probably just go for like, ten minutes anyway.”

“Ok, ok. Look, the bus is loading. We can at least talk about your costume though, right? Piper will plan the whole thing out for you before we even order…”

And Jason was right. As soon as Nico admitted that he had no ideas for a costume (not one minute into the bus ride), Piper had begun to quiz him on every piece of clothing in his closet. Leo and Jason chimed in to add and veto ideas, and just as the waiter brought out Nico’s fries she had made her decision. His leather bomber jacket, combat boots, some jeans, a white undershirt, Jason’s aviator sunglasses, and Leo’s dogtags: Maverick from Top Gun. Piper’s excitement made up for Nico’s dread, but he figured that as long as it didn’t involve face paint or leggings (both of which Leo kept insisting on) it would be good enough. He wouldn’t let Piper cut his hair just for the sake of the costume but did compromise on stopping at Jason ad Leo’s room before they all went down so she could ‘fix it’. 

At that point he finally managed to redirect the conversation to something that didn’t make him feel slightly ill and they spent the rest of dinner listening to Piper and Leo argue over who won their last game of Mario Kart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM THE WORST AT UPDATING. I'm sorry. I sort of lost my steam with this story. Hopefully I'll feel better about how the next chapter unfolds.
> 
> But thank you to everyone who's favorited and commented and everything. Those definitely keep me going :-)


	7. Halloween pt1

Will trailed after Kayla into the school auditorium. A stage was set up in one corner with a live band dressed as skeletons and a dance floor almost hidden by heavy fake fog spread out in front. He looked around at the other vague sections: scattered tables covered with instant cameras and props, a ‘haunted graveyard’ stocked with gnarled trees that Will recognized from the school play the previous year, and a corner with Victorian looking sofas and armchairs gathered around a projector currently playing The Bride of Frankenstein with the captions turned on. There were a few occupied tables and a couple curled up together watching the movie, but overall Will had the feeling that they were way too early. Kayla had her phone out and was texting her friends - most of whom lived on campus - so Will wandered over to the refreshments table to get them both some mysteriously smoking punch. 

By the time he was back to Kayla a few other students had trickled in. Most notably, the Stoll brothers were huddled in a corner of the graveyard talking quietly and looking awfully suspicious. Will pulled out his phone in hopes that Cecil or Lou Ellen might have responded to the text he sent when they parked, but there’s nothing. He stared at the name a few conversations down from their group message - he and Nico hadn’t really texted since Will basically forced him to come to the dance. He wondered if he pushed too much. He had maybe had too much coffee that morning and his mom had been giving him ‘looks’ whenever Kayla brought up the dance and hoped that he had come off as outgoing rather than needy but the more silence stretched between them the more he regretted bringing it up at all. 

For a second he thought about texting Nico something about the decorations or his costume or the pretty good cover of Last Caress the band was playing but couldn’t decide on the best way to casually also ask when Nico was actually coming, when Cecil appeared at his side with more punch. 

“Nice costume. So original.” 

Will laughed and took the punch, realizing that Kayla had already abandoned him for her friends while he had been rewriting his very casual text. “Well, you know, have to keep people guessing. And you’re… ?”

“Indiana Jones, duh. Rugged, confident, adventurous. Definite score with the ladies. I did research.”

“I wish you luck,” and Will did, truly, but also knew that Cecil’s research hadn’t really panned out yet. “Where’s Lou Ellen?”

“I passed her on the way in. She and what’s-her-name haven’t even made it in the front door. All I’ll say is that it’s a good thing neither of them went with face paint.”

“Well, at least her night will live up to expectations,” Will sighed. He finished the punch and leaned against the wall. 

Cecil peered at him. “That’s you’re second cup?”

“...yes…” 

“You know it’s spiked, right? Why do you think the Stolls got here so early?”

Will’s jaw dropped open a little as he looked from the punch to Cecil to his two empty glasses to the Stolls, still lurking in the graveyard but now joined by a handful of their friends. “Seriously?”

“Yeah dude. I mean, it isn’t the strongest stuff they’ve ever made but if you keep going at this pace all night you might want to find a place to crash. I already told my parents I’m staying here, just text your mom and we’ll find a couch or a floor or - if we’re lucky - a couple beds?” Cecil finished with a couple light elbows to Will’s ribs.

Will sighed again and called Kayla over. “Hey, what are your plans tonight?”

Kayla rolled her eyes at him. “Well, if you didn’t realize it, we’re already at this dance. So, you know, probably this.”

“Oh yes thank you, dear sister. No, like, did you tell mom you’re staying here tonight?”

“Oh yeah, duh, in Mary Beth’s room. Will, the Stolls spiked the punch. They’re having an after party. I’m not about to ditch that for a 30 minute drive home to mom and dad watching Lifetime movies, thanks.” She rolled her eyes and turned away again.

Will turned to Cecil. “How did everyone know about the punch except me??”

“No idea, dude. After the Valentine’s Dance last year I would’ve thought you would just assume.”

Will shuddered a little. He had been on a very awkward first date with Alex, and after a couple slow dances and pretty mediocre making out in the bathroom the official dance ended and Alex went up to his room right in time for a drunk Cecil to find Will and insist he chug the remainder of the punch directly from the serving bowl and then dragged him to the Stolls’ room for their after party. Despite Cecil being thrilled to find Will unoccupied, he also decided that the best way for Will to not overthink the weird first date was just to get him very drunk on cheap liquor. Will was supposed to sleep at Cecil’s that night, but Cecil’s mom was out of town and Cecil insisted that his dad, an energetic but easily distractible man, wouldn’t notice if they were asleep in his room or not before he left for work. Will woke the next morning with a deep aversion to anything that smelled vaguely like green apples, vodka, or a combination of the two, and they somehow managed to find a ride back to Cecil’s house where they spent the rest of the day eating pizza, sleeping, and downing Advil on repeat.

“Fair point. Fine, if Kayla’s already staying my mom won’t care.” While he texted his parents to let them know, Cecil cheered and went to get more drinks. After he hit send, his fingers itched to text Nico something, just to start the conversation that would hopefully lead to Nico showing up. Will was doing his best to not obsess but it had only taken Cecil and Lou Ellen a few days after his mom calling it to notice Will’s increasingly frequent glances toward Nico’s lunch table, and his adamant insistence that it was not a crush was a dead giveaway. He was still proud of his restraint, though. He could have listed off each time he had gotten Nico to laugh at one of his jokes and how soft and perfect the sound was, or the way his humor was dry and subtle to such an extreme that you almost missed it but once you realized it felt like you were in on some big secret. Besides, he didn’t want to jinx it. So instead, he just filed away each half smile he got when they passed each other in the hallway and took note of the subtle expressions he’d catch when he glanced at Nico from across the student lounge and did his absolute best to act very casual about the whole thing. 

“How’s that blank canvas?” He looked up at Cecil and realized that he had just been caught staring at a blank text for some unknown amount of time. He blushed and dropped his phone back into his pocket, taking the full cup handed to him. “Dude, is he coming?”

“Is who coming?”

“Don’t play dumb. Nico - I’m sure you know him. Just moved back, Italian, we all slept in the same tent a couple times when we were kids. Sound familiar?” Will just rolled his eyes and took a drink. “Right. I appreciate you not constantly reciting the sonnets I’m sure you’ve written about him, but I don’t think you even realized that Lou and I threw chips in your hair for most of lunch yesterday while you were staring at him like he was dessert.”

So much for playing it cool. “Yeah he said he was coming. I mean, I sort of insisted he come so we’ll see.”

Cecil threw his arm around Will. “How could he resist your charms? I’m sure he’ll be here. From what I can tell about the bubbly Mr. di Angelo, he doesn’t strike me as the type to arrive early to help with setup, you know?”

Will just laughed and pushed Cecil’s arm off his shoulder. Cecil mussed his hair and then looked over Will’s shoulder with an “Oh shit.” Will followed Cecil’s gaze toward the entrance and immediately saw Nico. A Nico wearing sunglasses and his hair pushed off his face and jeans that fit perfectly, but definitely Nico. And then Will realized that Cecil’s “oh shit” wasn’t about how painfully attractive Nico looked but instead was regarding the people he walked in with. “He’s friends with Captain America? And Piper McLean? How? When?”

Will just shrugged. At that, Leo Valdez, standing on Piper’s other side, saw him and Cecil and waved. The whole group walked over and Leo immediately fell into conversation with Cecil. From what Will could tell they had some sort of robotics or mechanics class together, most of the terms lost to the rest of the group.

“Hey,” Will smiled awkwardly at Jason and Piper. He had a class with Piper the year before but they hadn’t exchanged more than a few words, and while he definitely knew who Jason was (it’s hard to miss the sudden appearance of a tall, muscular, handsome upperclassman) they’d never spoken. He glanced at Nico but was afraid to look at him too long for fear of saying something stupid or being so obvious that the whole school would be able to see it. “So … great costumes,” which came out more like a question than the very laid-back statement he had meant it to be.

“Ohh thank you,” Piper said, smiling brightly. “Not to take all the credit, but I think if it was left to them, the boys would’ve just shown up in pajamas.” She started to mess with a piece of Nico’s hair that seemed to ignore whatever was keeping the rest of it together, and Will almost melted from the little bit of blush that began to spread over Nico’s cheeks, obviously trying not to cringe away from her fussing over him.

Jason seemed to notice Nico’s discomfort too and put a light hand on Piper’s shoulder, clearing his throat. “Piper did a great job,” and she turned back to him, beaming. “So, uh, Will. You’re on the soccer team, right?”

“Yeah, left midfielder,” only slightly thrown off by the abrupt conversation change.

“Cool, very cool. You know, we should come to one of your games sometime. Nico mentioned the team was good -” Will glanced over to Nico, feeling a little jolt of excitement that was pretty quickly replaced by confusion at the glare Nico was directing at Jason, who didn’t seem to notice and continued on, “- and I thought that since I’m new here I should do the whole school spirit thing. When’s your next game?”

Will glanced between Nico and Jason again, thrown off by Nico looking a little murderous and Jason looking pointedly agreeable. Piper seemed to have missed the whole exchange and had joined Leo and Cecil’s conversation about some sci-fi show. “Yeah, sure, there’s actually one on the -”

“Bros!!” Percy Jackson, dressed in a full shark onesie, suddenly appeared between Nico and Jason, throwing his arms around both of them and taking a few blinding photos with one of the disposable cameras. “Sorry we’re late, I lost my phone because this thing doesn’t have pockets.”

“You lose your phone on a daily basis, don’t go blaming the poor onesie,” Annabeth said, taking the camera from him and handing it to Piper, who immediately started taking photos of everyone

“She speaks the truth,” Percy sighed. “But, more importantly, I hear the punch is spiked?”

At that, Cecil chimed in. “Punch is good to go and the Stolls have a stockpile of after party supplies in their room, too. Will and I are crashing here somewhere. You’re staying, right?” Will thought Nico glanced at him at that comment but was back to scanning the crowd before Will could be sure. 

“Definitely,” Percy said, as he flung his arm around Annabeth, Piper catching the exact moment Annabeth’s smile broke through her exasperated expression. “Just point me to the punch.”

“I want at least one dance in before you’re drunk,” Annabeth said, pulling Percy toward the now-full dance floor. Jason looked at Piper questioningly and she smiled and tugged him in the same direction, pushing the camera into Leo's hands.

Leo looked around at the other three left behind and grinned, trading the camera for a flask. “I didn’t want to put all of my bets on the Stolls. Gentlemen?”

He handed it over to Cecil, who took a sip and coughed a little, then passed it to Nico. Will watched as he tilted his head up a bit to take a larger swig, admiring his jawline and dark eyelashes standing out against his olive-toned skin. Without any flinch or cringe from the liquor, he handed the flask to Will. Their eyes caught and Will had to remind himself to actually take the flask rather than just stare dumbly.

“Damn dude,” Cecil said, jarring Will out of the universe where it was only Nico standing there, looking at him. “You know your way around some whisky.”

Nico glanced over at Cecil while Will took the flask and tried not to cough from the burn of his tiny sip. “My dad strongly believes that ‘real men’ can handle their whiskey … and I’ve followed his advice by making myself very familiar with his liquor cabinet.”

“Right on,” Cecil said, nodding appreciatively.

Leo took the flask back, tipped it back for a large drink and dramatically declared, “Well, friends, wish me luck. Tonight’s the night that Valdez meets the love of his life,” before disappearing onto the dance floor.

Cecil rolled his eyes after him but then immediately seemed to realize that it was just him, Will, and Nico. Will was relieved that he didn’t make it too obvious when he left with a quick “me too!” before making a beeline for the punch.

Will grinned over at Nico, feeling both very awkward and excited. “So … James Dean? Danny Zuko?”

“Close. Top Gun.” Will caught what might have been a ghost of a smile.

“Right, the aviators.” He still couldn't let himself get caught staring at Nico so he looked around the now-full auditorium instead. “Um, want to check out the graveyard or something?”

They stopped at the punch table - now that Will knew it was spiked he could smell it and wished he couldn’t - then wandered around the edge of the auditorium toward the graveyard. They made stupid smalltalk, meaning Will made stupid smalltalk and Nico occasionally gave one-word answers. Will couldn’t blame him there, though, since things like “Oh look, someone drew a moustache on that jack o'lantern” weren’t exactly the best conversation starters. It wasn’t as frustrating as it had been the other day in the car, at least, and if Will didn’t feel so jumpy and nervous he might have even called it a comfortable silence. Nico seemed to be content just walking through the fake creepy forest. Or maybe he was bored? Will reminded himself that Nico wasn’t even going to come in the first place, and now Will was just babbling nonsense at him. He tried to distract himself from that train of thought before he started a rambling apology, but he was quickly running out things to say.

He was a little relieved when they ran in to Lou Ellen by the edge of the forest. “Hey, Lou! You finally made it inside, I see,” Will said with a smirk.

She smiled mischievously and winked at him. The three found a table and watched the others dance. By this point, it had mostly turned into Leo and Percy trying to outdo one another in flailing and overall ridiculousness while Piper took photos. Jason and Annabeth were talking to Grover and his girlfriend while occasionally moving out of the way of stray limbs.

Lou Ellen and Nico sat down on either side of Will and Lou Ellen promptly leaned her chair back. “Samantha had to go deal with some drama with her roommate and I one-hundred-percent don’t want to get wrapped up in it - she rooms with that girl who was dating that senior football player last year and they split up in the middle of the Valentines Dance and it was a huge scene, remember?” Will shook his head. “Oh, right, I think that was right before Cecil decided to go and rescue you from the world’s dullest date,” she continued, with no regard to tact. Will just barely kept himself from smiling apologetically to Nico at that. “Anyway, one million red flags there, so I snuck away.” She sighed and leaned back toward the table, peering over at Nico. “Sooo, leather jacket, what’s your story?” As if Will hadn’t told to her every detail of what he knew about Nico three times over in the past couple weeks. So, maybe she did have some tact.

There was a pause long enough that Will worried for a second that Nico was just going to revert to his single-answer style of conversation, which would only exasperate Lou Ellen, and if she decided she didn’t like him Will would never hear the end of it. But then Nico cleared his throat and looked directly at her, “It's classified. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

Will looked back at Lou Ellen, confused, but she was just staring at Nico. Then she burst out laughing, “You have got to be kidding me. Did you just fucking quote Top Gun at me? Touché.” And she leaned back and kept chuckling to herself. Nico just smiled and offered to get them more drinks.

As he walked away, Lou Ellen leaned against Will and said, “I like him. He seemed like the creepy-quiet-type at first but I think he’s more the choose-his-words-carefully-and-they-mean-more-type.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize that was a type.”

“Well, it is, and it's a good type. Good choice.”

“Whoah, there. He’s just here because I annoyed him into coming. Who knows if he’s even into dudes. Don’t get your hopes up.”

He could feel her roll her eyes next to him even though he was watching the dance floor. “Will, your hopes are up. Mine are directed in a totally different direction and have nothing to do with the two of you smashing face. But if it ends up happening I will be squeezing in a nice ‘told-you-so’ and then I imagine I’ll immediately get annoyed with how cute you’ll be together. And what do you mean you don’t know if he likes dudes?”

Will didn’t have time to answer before Nico set the drinks on the table. He was scrambling for something to say that didn’t scream ‘we’ve been talking about you, also are you gay?’ but Lou Ellen spoke first.

“So, Nico, I was just telling Will about how Samantha isn’t really into the whole monogamy thing after her last girlfriend went a little off the deep end in the jealousy department,” Nico just nodded, unreadable. “Yeah, they were each others first girlfriends or whatever, and it just got really heavy and she wants to try out more low-key things which totally works for me because I’m horrible at the whole relationship-part of relationships.”

“Uh, yeah. Congratulations?” Nico looked a little unsure of what the appropriate response was to that. Will didn’t really know either but he didn’t have a good feeling about the direction Lou Ellen was going. He tried to subtly glare at her but she was pointedly not looking in his direction.

“Thanks, yeah. So, what about you? Did you leave a trail of broken hearts behind in California?” Will nearly choked on his drink and Nico laughed awkwardly.

“Lou - that’s not - Nico, you don’t have to - she’s just being nosy.” Hopefully his face wasn’t as red as it felt. He glared at her with a look he hoped clearly said if-I-don't-die-from-mortification-I'm-going-to-strangle-you-later.

“Uh, yeah, no, it’s fine - I’m mostly trail-free,” he laughed awkwardly again and took a big sip of his drink.

“‘Mostly’?” she pressed. “That sounds just vague enough to be interesting. Do tell, Nico. Distract me while I wait for my fair lady to be freed from her banshee roommate.” Will rolled his eyes and sunk further into his seat. He didn’t want to protest too much - if he was being honest, he was curious. He glanced sideways at Nico and thought he saw a blush.

“Uh, just a guy at my school in LA. We fooled around for a few months but didn’t really do anything apart from that, like, socially or anything.” Will tried to look casually interested in the people dancing (Percy was doing a terrible job of dipping Annabeth) and hoped that his face didn’t reveal how much his heart leaped when Nico said ‘guy.’ 

Lou Ellen leaned in more. “Oh, that’s quite interesting. Did it end just because you moved or was there something more dramatic? Is he pining away in California thinking about you? It’d be like the opposite of that Adele song.” Her full attention was on Nico but Will could feel her buzzing with I-told-you-so’s directed right at him. 

At that, Nico let out a slightly bitter laugh. “Hardly. He wasn’t out and one of his friends stopped by when I was over. He didn’t see me but I guess it freaked Tyler out enough that he avoided me after that. I moved away a few months later so it didn’t really matter anyway.”

Will glanced over at Nico, but his face was unreadable, staring into his now empty cup. 

“Well, he sounds like a jerk.” Lou Ellen’s phone buzzed and she glanced down. “Annnnd speaking of jerks, Samantha’s roommate made up with her shit boyfriend or whatever so the coast is clear for me to return. Thanks for the laughs, boys - see you at the Stoll’s later?” She didn’t wait for an answer and was already a few tables away before Will even registered her leaving.

Her abrupt departure didn’t give Will any time to think of something to talk about, his brain still stuck on the fact that Will might, in fact, have an actual chance, so they just watched the people dancing and listened to the band (now playing the Cure). A few of the soccer team guys walked by and waved to Will, when Nico spoke up.

“Um, you don’t have to like, sit with me or whatever.”

“What?” Will turned to him, completely lost. Nico was looking down at his empty cup and rolling it between his hands.

“I mean, I know you have friends here and stuff. You can totally go hang out with them - I can go find Jason and Percy or something, it’s fine.”

“I … no, I’d rather hang out with you! I mean, unless you … want me to go?”

Nico looked up at him with a quick, “No! Uh, I mean, no, that’s not what I meant. I just … don’t want you to be like, stuck with me all night or something, feeling obligated to sit here because you're too nice to leave.”

“What? No, I invited you because I want to hang out with you, I like... hanging out with you,” Will could feel himself blushing as he trailed off. He looked down at his hands, fidgeting with the tablecloth and glanced back up to see Nico smiling a little, and Will couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Oh… ok, good,” Nico looked down at his cup again. “Well, thanks. For inviting me,” and he glanced back up and Will couldn't not smile when suddenly there was a bright flash and Piper sat down across from them with the camera, followed by Jason, Annabeth, and Grover.

“Putting Leo and Percy in the same room was the worst idea,” Annabeth glared at Jason as if it was his fault. “And then Cecil keeps suggesting ridiculous competitions for them. When we left they were trying to out-zombie each other. I barely escaped Percy trying to chew off my elbow.”

At that, Jason and Grover started trading ridiculous Percy stories (Annabeth alternating between shaking her head and laughing). Will and Nico mostly listened, but occasionally locked eyes and big started grinning. Will felt giddy, he felt like some small but important change has taken place. 

The six of them sat at the table, laughing and passing around the camera, before Percy and Leo (in each other’s costumes and temporary tattoos on their necks) arrived, followed by Cecil, who handed an empty disposable camera to Annabeth with a ‘you're welcome.’ She rolled her eyes but stowed it carefully in her clutch.

“Time for phase two?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I POSTED.


End file.
